Pirate stations hit on Friday 13th.

mike65

Whole stack of Dublin stations got raided this morning.

Correspondents in the big smoke will know more I expect.

ibarelycare

Kiss, Crystal, Play, Storm, Rhythm all been hit as far as I know. 2 weeks ago all the pirate stations had to go off the air for a while because word went out that comreg were sniffing around. All raided this morning. Heard they got about 10k worth of equipment from Kiss FM.

heybaby

Proper order, if the big boys in the 80's like nova, sunshine etc had to come off the air and play by the rules like everyone else then the mickeymouse bedroom 'radio stations' today should play ball too. No doubt they'll resurface son enough but good to see the authorities are on top of things.

Hogzy

How can the guards trace where they broadcast from?

mike65

Thats not hard, a broadcast has a signal, just triangulate the signal strength.

Kensington

A method called Triangulation is one way.

Basically pick 3 different points to start, with each point making up a corner of a triangle. Then you just find out from which direction the signal is strongest, for each of the three points, which will show you where the signal is coming from. Then you just move towards that direction - as you move closer and closer to the signal, eventually all three points will meet each other and bang, there's your transmitter.

Tails142

Triangulation, homing in on the direction where the signal is strongest?

Also, lizard people probably infiltrated the pirate stations, you would think that they were just normal people, but are really lizards... and answer to comreg, their overlords....

Our man in Havana

Tails142 wrote: »

Triangulation, homing in on the direction where the signal is strongest?

Also, lizard people probably infiltrated the pirate stations, you would think that they were just normal people, but are really lizards... and answer to comreg, their overlords....

More commonly known as informers, snitches or grasses.

bealtine

heybaby wrote: »

Proper order, if the big boys in the 80's like nova, sunshine etc had to come off the air and play by the rules like everyone else then the mickeymouse bedroom 'radio stations' today should play ball too. No doubt they'll resurface son enough but good to see the authorities are on top of things.

Typical Comreg go after the little guys like priests broadcasting mass and small outfits like pirate radio stations while the big guys get away with doing anything they want...

Our man in Havana

bealtine wrote: »

Typical Comreg go after the little guys like priests broadcasting mass and small outfits like pirate radio stations while the big guys get away with doing anything they want...

Oh do explain.

If the big boys have to get a licence, why should the bedroom warriors be exempt?

bealtine

Bond-007 wrote: »

Oh do explain.

If the big boys have to get a licence, why should the bedroom warriors be exempt?

That is undeniably true. But when the "big boys" are in breach of their licences nothing happens...simply because they are "big".

Manimal

heybaby wrote: »

Proper order, if the big boys in the 80's like nova, sunshine etc had to come off the air and play by the rules like everyone else then the mickeymouse bedroom 'radio stations' today should play ball too. No doubt they'll resurface son enough but good to see the authorities are on top of things.

The big boys came off the air and got jack **** for doing it. The re-emergence of the pirates in the early 1990s was a welcome relief from the same ****ty old jaded music and presenters on Classic Hits and Bore 104.

Surely you're just trolling here?

Manimal

bealtine wrote: »

That is undeniably true. But when the "big boys" are in breach of their licences nothing happens...simply because they are "big".

You should tell that to the people down in RLO.

Or the former staff of CKR, North West Radio or Radio Kilkenny who didn't even breach BCI guidelines but still lost their licences anyway.

L1011

heybaby wrote: »

Proper order, if the big boys in the 80's like nova, sunshine etc had to come off the air and play by the rules like everyone else then the mickeymouse bedroom 'radio stations' today should play ball too. No doubt they'll resurface son enough but good to see the authorities are on top of things.

They came off the air and played by the rules assuming they'd get licences. They didn't. They served audiences underserved by the existing stations (all three of them) at the time; but those audiences are now served by our licenced stations. The "big boys" were, when you strip away the veils of nostalgia, nothing other than the 98/104/102's of their day.

The pirates on now are never going to get licences and are serving audiences that are never going to be served on FM. Most are dance, which the BCI is not going to issue a licence for in a million years honestly.

L1011

Manimal wrote: »

Or the former staff of CKR, North West Radio or Radio Kilkenny who didn't even breach BCI guidelines but still lost their licences anyway.

Arguably its a franchise not a licence and absolutely no guarantee you're going to get it renewed. Radio stations business plans are MEANT to be built around existing for those ten years only.

The Muppet

Dont see the harm turning a blind eye to the low powered pirates once they have a clean rig and are not interfering with legal stations.

The big boys do get off lightly with breaching their licence. allowed power output, schedule changes etc, RLO, well they were just really taking the pi**.

Our man in Havana

There is no de minimis when dealing with pirates.

The Muppet

Bond-007 wrote: »

There is no de minimis when dealing with pirates.

I believe there should be . Pirate Radio has proved to be a useful and harmless (with some exceptions) training ground in the past .

robtri

Bond-007 wrote: »

There is no de minimis when dealing with pirates.

there should be, why should I not be able to listen to music that I find interesting that is not been served by the current licence holders....

Wertz

Great, so we get to listen to the homogenised same-y pop bullsh*t from O'Brien's monopoly on the FM waveband wihtout interference from those nasty pirates who play that horrid electronic music. How refreshing.
Don't the people awarding the licenses know that there is a whole swathe, nay a generation of people out there who are not catered for at all by the current safe offerings from the encumbents? These stations wouldn't be on the air if there wasn't an audience..the audience have done nothing wrong here...so why should they have their choice of listening curtailed or have it dictated to them what they should listen to?
Fight the powah etc.

spoonbadger

heybaby wrote: »

Proper order, if the big boys in the 80's like nova, sunshine etc had to come off the air and play by the rules like everyone else then the mickeymouse bedroom 'radio stations' today should play ball too. No doubt they'll resurface son enough but good to see the authorities are on top of things.

Oh wow, how wonderful that freedom of speech is being squeezed out of our air waves. How great that the "authorities", in the form of a big fuck-off government-commission (who benefit financially from killing off the opposition), are stomping out smaller stations and forcing us to listen to their pre-determined ****e. I cant wait to txt n 2 2fm n tell dem how fucking ecstatic i am 2 b stuck lisnin 2 their own brand of watered down ****e, like evry 14-yo, mob-mentality, txtspking twat n de cuntry.

Why are you proud of this?. Can you honestly say you like the idea that a government appointed board of farts, lawyers and accountants should be allowed to decide what's on our airwaves?. I never voted for that kind of censorship, i never asked for 2fm, and i sure as fuck had no part in the decision to give 800,000€ of the govt.'s money to pat kenny ever year, while volunteer stations are raided.

I'll support the governments anti-piracy actions, and it's radio stations, when any of it actually applies to people like me.

[/soapbox]

intbn

Kensington wrote: »

A method called Triangulation is one way.

Basically pick 3 different points to start, with each point making up a corner of a triangle. Then you just find out from which direction the signal is strongest, for each of the three points, which will show you where the signal is coming from. Then you just move towards that direction - as you move closer and closer to the signal, eventually all three points will meet each other and bang, there's your transmitter.

interesting .. and what if you had 2 transmitters with their signal ranges overlapping? i think it would still be possible by geometry or something? it wouldnt be as easy to pinpoint it i'd imagine though.. i have to say i like what i'm hearing on this subject

Kensington

intbn wrote: »

interesting .. and what if you had 2 transmitters with their signal ranges overlapping? i think it would still be possible by geometry or something? it wouldnt be as easy to pinpoint it i'd imagine though.. i have to say i like what i'm hearing on this subject

I'm not quite sure what you mean here?

If you have two transmitters, both of them tuned to the same frequency, then the two signals are going to interfere with each other very badly, which'll make it difficult, if not impossible, for anyone to actually be able to listen to your broadcast. Kinda defeats the purpose of having a radio station with no-one being able to hear it!

On the other hand, if you have two transmitters, one on one frequency, the second on another frequency, then all they do is lock onto the first signal frequency, triangulate it, then lock onto the second signal and triangulate its frequency. Although if you're going to go setting up multiple transmitters, in all likelihood they'll just triangulate one of the transmitters then trace the source of your link signal to the transmitter. Go to the source of the link (your studio), and well, that's the end of your station

Triangulation is quite easy to do, doesn't need all that complex equipment and with three guys or gals in a van each, could easily be done from scratch in one afternoon.